


Hostage Situation 101

by 4n0n



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cannibalism, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant, Rin-centric, Slight horror, no beta we die like men, this may contain pairings later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2018-12-21 21:46:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11953272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4n0n/pseuds/4n0n
Summary: The academy taught Rin a number of useful things. For example, Surviving a hostage situation 101.Rin does not think the guidelines were created with a giant demon turtle mutant in mind but she will wing it somehow.-The spiritual follow up to "With her steady hands".





	1. Survive

Rin comes to slowly. She feels sick. Hold that thought. Sick does not do justice to the amount of wrong she feels. E v e r y t h i n g h u r t s.

She's on the ground, a particularly, wickedly sharp stone digging into her butt, tells her so. Rin has always been a girl who looked on the bright side. So she counts waking up disoriented and in pain on naked earth as the massive improvement it is compared to the cold, hard, concrete floors of a Kiri black site prison.

Naturally, that is when she remembers IT.

IT is still inside her. IT is currently hovering above her, ginormous jaws and all. All of IT is ginormous, the jaws are just seem especially important. IT tilts ITS head. Rin's eyes must be the size of saucer plates now, she wishes they could open wider, maybe then they'd fall out of their sockets and she wouldn't have to look at IT.

Suddenly, IT twists ITS head up. 

\-----

Hostage situation 101: Stall for time.

Rin wakes up, feeling like she's been hit by lightning. Her entire chest hurts. Upon more in depth consideration she concludes, e v e r y t h i n g h u r t s. She is in some kind of forest. On second thought, these trees look weird. There's something wrong --

Oh great. There are people in the tree. Stuck inside of the trees as if they grew out of the ground and impaled them. Rin stares. She slowly makes her way to the tree. One of the mangled corpses is still wearing its mask. Mizu nin. As long as no one's alive everything should be fine.

"Oho, oho, ohohoho what are you doing here? You are not supposed to be here. Are you a naughty girl?" The thing that is coming from the tree is not human but unfortunately it is very much alive. A grotesque eldritch form of pale, strangely plant-like tissue mimicking a one eyed, spiralling face, it moves towards her, giggling and chatting. 

"You're supposed to be dead." It laughs in the way of someone who has theoretical knowledge of amusement but can't really relate. 

Rin can't possibly outrun it. It stops in front of her. 

"I guess I should kill you, right?" It questions curiously. 

Training kicks in. 

"My name is Rin. Shinobi registration 9641. I serve as a medic." 

It's a flicker. A tilt of its head at the word medic. Rin homes in on it. 

"Are you hurt? Can I help you somehow?" She puts on her best professional smile the one reserved for patients, highly likely to be career ANBU, feeling skittish. 

The creature seems to consider her proposal. 

Good think, you freak. 

"There is one thing." Yes, yes.

"Yes?" Rin questions barely missing overly eager and settling on very interested. 

"What is pooping like?" What? Rin internally stumbles and falls face-flat. While maintaining her composure on the outside, if she's completely honest it's not even in the Top 50 of the weirdest questions she's been asked.

"Would you like to know more about the human intestinal system?" She hedges. 

Please don't impale me. Please, don't impal--

The creature moves all its limbs come alive, suddenly without warning and speed that she can't hope to match. To her growing terror Rin notices that she is completely surrounded. 

"You can tell me what it's like to poop?"

Okay, it really wants to know what taking a shit feels like, okay. I can do this. Thank you, Taki-sensei.

Rin dons confident smile 4, reserved for reassuring hysteric patients in combat situations. 

"Of course, I can. I'm a medic, I know all about the human body." She puts a long emphasis on all in case the creature has more peculiar interests. 

"Oh, oh I'm so lucky." The creature sing-songs. 

"So what does it feel like to poo?" 

Rin embarks on a stunning tale of the human digestive system while the creature listens attentively. It is sympathetic in its enthusiasm.

"Then the processed food goes through the intestines, first there is the ----" 

"RIN-CHAN!!!" The creature suddenly cries. Rin's heart stops for a beat and then starts off in a dead sprint. "You're not stalling are you?" Its pale, ghastly limbs wiggle threateningly. "Because you know I will kill you." It continues in a no nonsense voice. "So please before you die, tell me what it's like to poo!!" It says, like children beg their mothers for some more time before bed. 

_Help me._ The thought echoes through her head uselessly. 

"Ok. If you want to have an incomplete picture of the whole thing. I'll just tell you about that part and then you can go and look for another medic who is willing to answer your questions. I'm sure there is one right round the next tree just waiting for you." She says sarcastically, hands on her hips, faking fearlessness she doesn't feel. The creature throws itself back dramatically and wails, "I know. I know your the best. I'm soo happy that I've met you. You're amazing. He never answers my questions, he is so mean and probably too stupid anyways. I wish I'd found you instead of him but I really have to kill you." 

It's as if she has taken a step back and someone else, IT, is in charge. Her legs crumble, Rin hits the ground face-first. She's back. 

I ' M S R R , I ' S C A R E , N 'T N T T O D I ---

Rin gasps as IT wails inside her head. IT doesn't know how to operate her body. 

Rin takes charge. She slows her heartbeat and suppresses her drained chakra reserves. IT can kill whatever the thing is. But it is no killer, Rin on the other hand.

"Rin-chan." The creature asks curiously, like a child regarding a particularly puzzling ant.

Wait for it. Rin thinks really hard at it, praying desperately that it will understand.

She makes her heartbeat flutter, stutter and fade out. The creature giggles. 

"I give you points for trying but I'm not falling for that." It's twisting limbs reach for her and pull her up so she's facing it directly. 

Now! 

It's weird. She can feel her jaw open wide, too wide, as immense, suffocating chakra surges from her core, it hits the creature at close-range. There is no scream. There is nothing but scorched earth and bits and pieces of the thing.

Rin falls to her knees. Then she begins to move, she tips forward and braces herself on her arms. Slowly putting one hand before the other she pulls herself towards the fallen meat, her limp legs dragging in the dirt.


	2. Eat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She needs to eat.
> 
> WARNING: chapter contains depictions of cannibalism

 

Hungrily she grabs the meat. She is weak, meat will be good for her. It's difficult, the limp appendages weigh her down. She has to brace herself on one hand or she is going to fall forward. The meat is put in her mouth. Her jaws twitch feebly. That's not right, these should work, they should, they worked just now. With the force of those that expect no resistance her jaws snaps OOOWWW!!!

 

 

 

 

Rin reflexively swallows around something solid. Choking. Violent hacking. Panic. More Hacking.  Her throat convulses horribly around the foreign object. She spits it out and heaves some more for good measure.

 

_WHaa--_

 

It's a piece of meat, its white color and fibroid texture leave no doubt for its origin. Rin feels like crying, so she does a good cry never hurt nobody someone once told her. She heaves again, in spite of the pain in her jaw. Shaken, she brings her hands up and resets her jaw. Sighing in relief as the pain subsides.

 

 

 

 

Her hands reach for the meat again. Finally, she can eat, she is weak and meat will help. She takes a big hearty bite. Fish tastes much better but this meat will give her strength, so she must endure. She is very thin. Yes, meat will be good. 

 

Rin spits out the chunk.  Her hands reach for it and stuff it back into her mouth. She is hurt and weak and the meat will be good for her.  The monster was very strong, with a body and chakra that was like the bad man's.  Its meat will be good for her. 

 

She is hurt. She needs to feed. Her hands tear the meat into tiny pieces, tinier pieces. Maybe the piece before was simply to big for her small mouth. It's a good thing, she set her jaw, now chewing will be much, much easier, it hurt her so much before. Yes she will be much much better now that she is eating. Once her stomach is filled, her hands form signs and a clear spring wells up. She needs to drink too. Water is important.

 

She is so much better, now. The chakra hurt her before but now there's just a slight discomfort that is good. She needs to rest now. She is very exhausted. Wait. She will need food after resting. Her limbs are trembling but determinedly she crawls and collects more meat.

 

She won't starve now. How wonderful. 

 

Corals grow from the ground and surround her and the precious meat in a protective shelter. Rin sleeps. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbetaed
> 
> Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.


	3. Get to know your jailor, have a good cry together

A cold, wet splash on her nose and Rin startles awake. She is unconscious too often. She must have fainted after the creature had been hit and been captured again? Keeping her breathing even, she carefully peers around, her eyes opened to the slits. There's a strange taste in her mouth. She is surrounded by some kind of material. It is oddly shaped. _Corals._ She can recall the image from the library book. _How did they get here?_ They only grow in oceans. _Kiri._ Has she been re-captured? She stretches her senses, she can feel no chakra signatures around her, she can't hear anyone or anything. Rin chances sitting up. The corals form an almost coffin-like structure around her. Rin turns and finds that there is a pile of that creature's meat next to her. _Eww._

  


Nevertheless, she seals it into a scroll, for research purposes. It is easy enough to get out of the dome, the corals give way beneath her fingers. From outside, the structure melds into its surroundings, located beneath the roots of the ghastly trees, it isn't recognizable as a foreign object. A hideout rather than a prison, providing cover and protection while she slept. All her thoughts ground to halt.  


  


There is no one here but her and … IT.

  


_It's a trap. Stupid. It must be._

  


Rin thinks determinedly. But the thought continues, she should by all rights be dead twice over. 

_  
_

_Twice?!_

  


Rin tears at her clothes. She rips them apart, agitated and too forceful because of it. They're already torn, a hole through chest and back.

  


Her naked chest sports a grisly scar. Rin blinks. The scar is still there branching out from the center of the strike into a familiar pattern of scars. Kakashi has them all over his arm. Kakashi's targets sport the same patterns as her, plus a hole where their hearts used to be. 

  


  


Kakashi had looked at her, disbelieving terror warping to agonized betrayal on his face, as he realized his hand had pierced her chest.  


  


  


Gingerly, she touches the area, it doesn't hurt, it's not sore, it's healed. Rin sits down and hugs her knees. Out in the open, in the middle of nowhere. That's just asking for death. Rin crawls back into her shelter.

  


She needs a moment to collect her thoughts.

  


  


  


These are the facts, she knows:

  


IT is inside of her.

  


IT was supposed to be released in Konoha.

  


She jumped in the path of Kakashi's Raikiri when he refused to kill her.

  


She woke up. Sore.

  


Encountered the creature.

  


IT killed the creature.

  


She woke up again. Better.

  


  


  


  


She touches her chest, her second heart doesn't carry the seal that was carved into its predecessor. Medical chakra gathers into her hand.  


  


“DN'T!!!” IT snarls suddenly. “YU TR O KL US,” he roars.

  


Rin falls into water, she struggles to keep her head above the surface but her clothes are heavy like lead and she sinks like a stone. The water burns her eyes, she tries to open her mouth to explain but her efforts only fill her lungs with water. She coughs, expelling precious oxygen, desperately swims against the current. It's all for naught. Something catches on her hand, a net, it flies past her and she is dragged down into the deep where no light can reach and IT is waiting.

  


A sun rises beneath her, she recognizes IT'S eye, its luminescence revealing IT'S open maw, full of wicked teeth, a monster belonging in fairytales made real. Fear gives her strength where bravery and training have failed her, Rin swims away and IT gives chase.

  


Pitch black surrounds her, up or down, it's all lost to her. Only that eye coming ever closer remains, it's her only point of orientation. Her legs kick at the water. Her lungs burn, she resists the urge to breath. A futile struggle against IT who may as well be the sea itself. Her mouth opens in an angry scream as IT'S jaws close around her. Rows upon rows of sharp teeth cut and tear at her, Rin draws a kunai and stabs at them, it breaks on the third hit. She draws chakra into her hands and feet and latches onto the teeth, they cut deeply into her hands. She grits her teeth against the pain. IT opens ITS mouth and water comes rushing in, it tears her away from the teeth, she tumbles into darkness.

  


  


  


Rin is dropped onto a rock. Groaning in pain, she struggles upwards, the cuts on her arms and legs sting and burn, e v e r y t h i n g h u r t s. It feels a lot like deja vu. She opens her eyes and sure enough there IT is, all huge and terrifying. Rin coughs water at him not that it gets far enough to reach him but it's the thought that counts.

  


ITS head tilts to the side. “You don't want to die.”

  


“Wow, Captain Obvious, I had no idea.” Politeness is beyond her. On that note, fuck politeness, it was never any use to her. Not when she asked Minato-sensei for more training, not when she asked Kakashi, not when she was captured. If she had fought tooth and nail, maybe the Kiri nin would have killed her, then she wouldn't be stuck with him. Tears spring into her eyes. Maybe the Iwa nin would have had to kill her instead of take her. Rin cries because she's a lowly coward. A weak, pathetic, little girl and everyone can see it. But it's not true, she knows it isn't but she wishes someone would tell her so.

  


“I didn't want to be with you either.” IT yells, IT sounds like a child. “You're not like the others, you're too weak, you can't hold me.” IT looks upset. Rin cries harder, it's all true, she knows it's not her fault but who else can she blame.

  


“But you survived the sealing and then you struck us with lightning,” IT cries. “It hurt, I was scared. But you, you heard me, and you saved us. Even though you're weaker than a nematode." A memory floats into Rin's consciousness. A child crying for help. A lethal injury. _The angle._ She hadn't been next to her patient. She had to look down because she was looking at her own chest.

  


"You even helped me fight the monster with the evil man's chakra. We defeated it together and suddenly you're trying to die again.”

  


IT'S wailing now, a full blown tirade against all his suffering, vast and endless like the sea that surrounds them. He never wanted to be sealed into someone, he misses the ocean. Rin is right there beside IT, turns out she has a lot to cry about too. They cry next to each other for what feels like hours. Their tears fill up the ocean until the water swallows her rock. The water rises, Rin has to stand on her toes to keep her head above the surface, then it rises some more and she has to tread water. She treads water for a long time, growing tired after hours of crying and treading. Her head begins to drop soon, she will sink beneath, whe suddenly one of IT'S gigantic paws picks her up and deposits her on IT'S head.

  


“Thanks.” She blubbers. For some reason that makes IT cry harder. The water level continues to rise, salty tear streaks dry on their faces above them the sky is very blue and the sun is shining brightly.

  


“I'm afraid that you will break the seal” she says as the sun is beginning to set and the water stopped rising.  


  


“I'm afraid that you will die and take me with you,” he says in reply.

  


“I'll try to get stronger.”

  


“I'll try to remain sealed.”

  


It's a compromise.  


  


  


  


  


"My name is Rin, by the way.”  


  


“Isobu.”

  


   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unbetaed
> 
> Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto


	4. Situation Appropriate Sob Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know anything about seagull behavior.

 

 

Endless blue...the sea is calm today, fluffy white clouds trail lazily above him. Squawk. A demand for attention, laughing he turns on his back, offering his belly to the tricksters, ...

 

She wakes up. _A dream._ Blearily she rubs her eyes.

 

Triumphant cries ring out above the coral dome. She startles, breaks free from the corals with none of yesterday's hesitation, hands forming signs and chakra rising.

 

A cacophony of shrieks erupts, righteous fury at this rude interruption of a meal well deserved. How dare she challenge them? How dare she contest heir rightfully earned meal? The birds flee to the skies. What a cruel thing to do. Can't she see there is plenty to go around? The birds have travelled from far and wide for nothing.

 

Pitifully, the flock circles and squawks above them. But what can they do, she is the biggest predator around. They know better than to try their thin worn luck.

 

Their cries sound off, hoarse and pained, Fire country ash in their lungs. Warbirds, long abandoned by their master. While the doomed flock circles above, wings grown frail from the fire, soot painting the white an ugly grey. These wings won‘t carry them home. 

 

Something small and pathetic tumbles from the sky. The little one catches itself, manages to avoid shattering its bones on the ground. But it‘s not getting back in the air. Too many scorched feathers. It‘s a miracle it flew in the first place. 

 

Persistent in its futile effort, it flaps it wings, bravely fighting to get back to its own. 

 

She moves suddenly. One moment she blinks at the pitiful creature, the next she has grabbed the bird. It screeches and fights viciously but her hold is merciless. Yet she doesn't go in for the kill.

 

With a warcry, the flock descends on her. Loyal creatures.

 

The preset genjutsu falls on them like a snare closing on their frail necks. The birds sail to ground like leaves in a gentle autumn breeze.

 

Bait, she used the little one as bait. The corners of her mouth tilt up ever so slightly, pride in a cleverly executed plot.

 

That's it, then. What a sad thing, to die so far from the sea dragged into a meaningless war, near starved to the bone, now to fill up the belly of a doomed girl.

 

She moves her hand to break the fragile neck. Isobu closes his eyes. She's hungry. It's life.

 

Rin huffs, breathes in deeply and then breathes out.

 

The green glow of healing chakra washes over the first bird.

 

Oh.

 

What is she doing?

 

Her eyebrows move up.

 

“You know. I was looking forward to getting some real food.”

 

She moves on to the next bird. “Finally, a decent meal.” She keeps on muttering as she moves from bird to bird, treating them, wasting her chakra on them.

 

“Free dinner, practically throwing itself into the pan for me.”

 

“Kakashi would....” She freezes almost drops the bird, she's holding, snaps her gaze towards the trees.

 

_Kakashi._ An important name.

 

And then she continues treating the birds, one by one until all birds have been treated. She never looks back at the trees, never hesitates or pauses, she just works, relentless and dependable as the tide.

 

 

She wipes her hands on her skirt. With one longing look at the birds, she picks up the white meat and chews it down methodically.

 

Then she gathers chakra again and heals the blisters on her stomach. She stares down at the disappearing sores.

 

“It be less scary if I could blame you,” She muses. “But you actually tried...”

 

Isobu waits for the accusations to fly but she just breathes wearily and turns towards the corpse trees. Methodically she digs out one corpse after the other, cutting through rotting flesh, and hacking away at the wood until she can see their faces. 

 

Squack!

 

One moment she‘s digging the stinky corpse out of the tree, the next she has turned around, kunai defensively before her.

 

“Pidgeon shit.”

 

As one the newly awakened flock seizes her up, their eyes are sea-grey, a promise of storm in them. Rin forcibly relaxes her stance, reigning in her chakra until it's a single deadly force.

 

She tilts her head, a predator's considering gaze. The birds watch her unperturbed. A slight breeze blows over the corpse field. Seconds tick by. No one moves.

 

Rin takes a careful step back. The birds don't move. Rin takes another step back and then another. The birds still don't move.

 

“ _EPIC ESCAPE MANOUVRE 8!!!”_ Why is she shouting?

 

Quick as a flyfish she chucks a smoke bomb and runs for the woods.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think.


	5. Remember Best Laid Plans Have a Way of Going Wayward

 

As soon as she hits the first trees, Rin goes to ground. The earth parts for her readily. Kakashi would be proud.

 

Safely hidden away she curbs the desire to chew on her nails. He must have made it. Possibly used the confusion ensuing the creature's attack to escape. None of the corpses in the trees were him, the creature never mentioned him. It said, “You're supposed to be dead”, clearly referring to her alone, it would have asked about Kakashi otherwise.

 

No, it was her that was supposed to die.

 

Rin leans back against the wet earth. The creature is an unknown variable. Its appearance puts a wholly different spin on her situation.

 

Rin thinks, takes time against the urge to run for the hills. The seal is breaking, Isobu's promise doesn't change that. It was never meant to last. She overheard her captors saying as much. She'd taken it for lucky happenstance then. 

 

Using Isobu to flatten Konoha. No matter, how she looks at it, it's a bad plan. Amateur work, really. Too many things left to chance, she could have been neutralized by any of her comrades.

 

She clenches her fist. Kakashi didn't. Flat out refused even.

 

They couldn't have possibly accounted for that.

 

But if the destruction of Konoha wasn't the objective than what was?

 

Rin unpacks more meat and chews thoughtfully. It tastes like raw tofu.

 

_A Kiri nin with a bloodline limit? A heretofore unknown puppet from Suna?_

 

Her eyes widen. 

 

A uniting factor, a common threat. If Isobu broke the seal before she reached Konoha or she was killed before her arrival, Kiri could accuse Konoha of attempted poaching. Especially if there was an attempt to bring her in and attempt to stabilize the seal.   


 

Kushina had berated Minato for his killing spree across the front line, called him a naïve fool. She'd been convinced that his display of power would unite the other villages against them. They'd fought then and there with Kakashi and her as shocked audience. A week later, Suna and Iwa had been allied. It had fallen apart in a matter of days. Konoha's spy network at its finest. But it didn't change the truth of Kushina's words. A common threat would give cause to forge an alliance. 

 

If the other villages believed that Konoha was trying to steal their weapons, then an alliance wouldn't be farfetched. 

 

Rin breathes against the thick lump of terror growing in her chest. That's not necessarily true. Just a the most plausible conclusion and the most terrifying one. 

 

,Her first instinct is to report back. Which is as far as first instincts go not all that bad. Except for her newly, soon to be over status as jinchuuriki. For one weak moment, she wishes desperately for a contract animal. But that's a thing for old clans, not the orphaned daughter of small shinobi family whose traditions and heirlooms had been lost long before she was born. 

 

She considers her options, and then sets out to Kiri.  

 

Sometimes the best solutions are the simple ones, she decides. Let the aftermath of the broken seal be their problem. 

 

\---

 

Rin steals a boat off the shore line. Konoha does teach its shinobi how to navigate the sea but it‘s more a theory course on a calm pond, nothing like the endless blue that spreads before her. 

 

Genuine happiness shows on Isobu's monstrous face as it swims through her mind wavy like a reflection on water. Soft puffy clouds form abstract patterns in the sky, a soft breeze tangles in the sails. While high above them birds soar. 

 

Rin has always been a fast learner, good at remembering stuff. So she knows that the storm is coming. She knows what to do. She pulls up the sails, tightens the knots, secures her provisions and waits. Everything is going to be fine. She is sitting in a nutshell, perfectly okay. If Isobu were a person he'd be glowing with anticipation.

 

And then the breeze picks up until the wind whips through her hair, above her the clouds grow darker and darker still. Rain begins to fall, a couple thick drops and in the next second its pouring. The boat is a mere plaything for waves, tossed around like a ball of yarn by kittens. 

 

Rin looks up, clinging  to the mast with chakra. 

 

Somewhere between the rain and the wind the waves become mountains, taller than Hokage Tower.

 

_The sea becomes the sky, the sky becomes the sea._ Isobu sing-songs. 

 

Higher than Hokage Mountain, a behemoth of water. 

The wave crashes. Thoughts of flattened, crushed bodies, drowned corpses and distantly surprise at her fear.

 

Pain lances through her lower back vicious and unexpected, she loses her grip on the mast and slips overboard. Sputtering saltwater, she comes up for a second just to get buried beneath tons of water, something red and incorporeal is stuck to her, bright in the black water. She can't do anything, not move, not breathe, not close her eyes to spare her the sting of salt water.

 

_I'm going to die._   


 

_NOT YET._

 

And his tail moves. Rin blacks out.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm beginning to sense a theme of pain induced unconsciousness, here. That can't be healthy. And look at that plot appears!
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	6. Island Paradise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's trouble among the hostages.

 

Her lower back is a dead zone surrounded by pain. Rin's knees ache, black and blue with bruises. Her hands covered with itching scratches shake as they form the signs. In the soft glow of green chakra her pain ebbs away.

 

Rin looks around. It's an island. Hashirama's Trees. He made an island of coral. The sun is already high up in the sky. Gingerly she gets to her feet, reaches out to brace herself and touches wet paper. Gross. She sees scattered scrolls. Wet and soggy from water, they lie tnext to her looking conspicuously inconspicuous.

 

Rin hesitates, on the one hand, it is a bad idea to open unknown scrolls, on the other hand, her supplies are gone. _Fortune favors the bold._

 

Ready to shushin away at the first sign of danger, Rin gingerly pries the paper apart.

 

Nothing. No booby trap. It's a supply scroll, medical supplies, rations, _fresh water_. Too good to be true.

 

An image of a clear, sparkly, cheerfully blubbering spring flashes through her head.

 

Rin drinks the water. A demon telling her to stay hydrated, how did it get to this? A hand grips hers- She shakes herself from the memory. She'll be brave like him. Another image, this time of white meat, Rin sighs, some proper spice, a nice marinade and that stuff wouldn't even taste bad. Compared to her ration bars, it's basically gourmet food.

 

“Thanks for saving me,” she croaks into the crisp morning air.

 

An act that was entirely self-serving, she's 98 percent sure, but it needs to be said nonetheless. Some emotion ripples through her. Did she startle him? That would be funny. Or sad, she supposes. Someone being so unused to the bare minimals of decency, red dusting their cheeks as they accepted the bare scraps of kindness as though it were something amazing like a miracle. Almost as an afterthought, she tries to share her observation about the white meat with Isobu. Rin listens attentively but he remains silent. Maybe he didn't get that reference.

 

 

Rin eats and drinks slowly, surveying the ocean around her. Nothing to see but still water.

 

Which way to Kiri?

 

She wanders around the coral island, looking for something to orientate herself with but she is surrounded by vast blue.

 

_The sea becomes the sky. The sky becomes the sea, indeed._ She'll have to wait for nightfall.

 

Rin spends the rest of the day looking at the ocean. Curious fish explore the new reef. They're colourful and bright, none of the library books did them any justice. She peers into the water. They're probably not poisonous.

 

Splash. The fish disappear. Rin crouches low on the ground.

 

Something is here.

 

Just to be safe, Rin removes her hitai-ate and hides it between the corals. Her weapons are lost but the scalpels from the med kit will do in a pinch. Suppressing her chakra, she scales the coral island.

 

Splash.

 

Rin ducks into a crevice, heart hammering.

 

Splash.

 

The noise isn't coming closer. In fact, there's no movement, at all. It has chakra, though. Gripping a scalpel, Rin stalks closer.

 

It's not a shinobi.

 

It's a summon animal. A shark on the small side, trapped in shallow water, just deep enough to breathe. It twists its head into Rin's direction. She takes a step back, that's an impressive set of teeth.

 

This time she's prepared of the melancholic surge. Isobu, she decides, has a certain fatalistic tendency. If he were a comrade, she'd have to report him. It's young, otherwise it would have just gone back home. Kakashi's dog can do it as easy as breathing. If she pushed it into the water, it would swim back home.

_NO!_

Like a crack of thunder, there's a crash. Rin jumps back and avoids plunging headfirst into the water as the corals disappear beneath her feet. The shark is gone, back to the deep water. Silence reigns and then there's only anger.

"What the hell?!"

_I'm never going back to that place!_

Something snaps and Rin doubles over in sudden pain. She grits her teeth and throws all her chakra against the ache. She rips her clothes, boils are forming on her stomach where the pale ink of the seal has begun to wash out. She gasps, _that's it, it's over._ He's going to rip out of her. She holds her breath, braces for the inevitable but the seal stays frayed and tattered and doesn't break.   

Isobu is still as glassy water. Rin releases her breath utterly exhausted. That was a fear reaction, he's afraid, terrified even. Her anger is gone, ebbed away in the wake of that realization. Rin sits on the shore until it gets dark. At night the flat ocean mirrors the sky. Stars glitter on the water's surface and the large moon shines at her from above and beneath.

_Do what you must. You will not reach that place._

Rin ignores him and sets out across the ocean following the constellations pointing to the Land of Water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think.


End file.
